There were heartbreaking scenes at the funeral mass of little Kayla Carey who died from meningitis last week.

The six-year old's distraught parents Ger and Martin broke down as their little girl's white coffin was placed in the hearse outside St Mary's Church in Navan, Co Meath.

Minutes earlier the packed church heard how the little schoolgirl who loved life was taken so cruelly from her loving family.

Parish Priest Kevin Heery told the congregation how the entire community had been devastated by Kayla's shock death last Thursday after being struck down with meningitis.

He said that Kayla loved being a little girl and never wanted to grow up and tragically this came to pass.

He said: "Kayla enjoyed being a young girl and she said that she wanted to stay small forever.

"It breaks our heart that her little aspiration came true as we pray that heaven will reunite us.

"The entire town of Navan is still in shocked at Kayla's death especially at her school, Scoil Mhuire."

Fr Heery added: "Kayla's death last Thursday has shocked our community. In our numbness and our pain we've come here to the House of God to comfort and console the family."

Fr Heery also prayed for Kayla's cousin Jasmine, 10, who is seriously ill with meningitis in Dublin's Temple Street hospital.

As the hearse pulled away from the Church Kayla's parents Ger and Martin, her brother Brooklyn and sister Faith touched the little white coffin one last time before it was taken to be interred in Saint Finian's Cemetery on the Old Athboy Road just outside the town.